The Trust remains focused on our core objective of improving well-being in the UK and Ireland. But, as Carnegie himself outlined in our Trust Deed and Royal Charter, the needs of people change over time and we must be flexible in our approach to respond to those changes.
We aim to use the history of the Trust as a launch pad for future work. We have a strong track record in areas like public libraries, support for cultural activity, social welfare, further education, the role of civil society and rural development. Each of these areas relates to an aspect of well-being, for example access to knowledge and culture, participation in society and access to goods and services. Our challenge is to explore how society can best meet these needs in the twenty-first century – the solutions will look very different now to those developed in the early twentieth century.
The Trust’s new policy team has been tasked with identifying innovative contemporary policy issues to be carefully researched, evaluated and reviewed. Our work is directed at finding practical and sustainable solutions to social problems and advocating these to stakeholder and decision-makers.
The policy team work across three key themes:
• People and place, led by Douglas White
• Enterprise and society, led by Jim Metcalfe
• Knowledge and culture, led by Liz Macdonald
Under People and Place, we are currently exploring issues around the role of the third sector in the delivery of public services for older people with the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations. Continuing our work on rural development, we have commissioned evaluations of rural housing burdens in Scotland and a history of community land trusts and are carrying out a mapping exercise identifying rural networks in the UK and Ireland.
In Enterprise and Society, we have recently published our work on More than GDP: Measuring what Matters which looks at the arguments for measuring wellbeing in a way which goes beyond economic measures. We are also currently working with the Local Government Information Unit to explore the role of non-departmental public bodies – the term quango was created by Alan Pifer, President of our sister organisation the Carnegie Corporation of New York back in 1967. Current changes in UK government policy suggest it is a good time to review what these organisations are for.
Our Knowledge and Culture theme is concentrating this year on the future of public libraries. The reductions in public spending have threatened public libraries across the UK and Ireland and it is timely to review the role that they play both in providing access to knowledge and building strong communities. Blair Jenkins, a Carnegie Fellow, is leading our work on the future of media and journalism – identified as vital to the development of a strong civil society and as an underpinning for democracy in our inquiry on this theme, published last year.
In addition to this continuing work, the team are also now exploring new project ideas for 2011 and 2012. We are keen to work in partnership with like-minded organisations. And we welcome every opportunity to discuss ideas with policymakers, the public sector, voluntary organisations, business, individuals and communities. While we are no longer a grant-giving Trust, we are open to innovative ways of working in partnership. If you are interested in any of the themes or projects highlighted, the team would be delighted to hear from you.